(WiPC/IFEX) – International PEN condemns the brutal attack on 25 October 2006 by three masked men on Montenegrin poet and author Jevrem Brkovic outside his home in the capital, Podgorica. The attack left his driver, Srdjan Vojicic, dead from gunshot wounds, and Brkovic, 73, with severe head injuries. The motive for the attack is not […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – International PEN condemns the brutal attack on 25 October 2006 by three masked men on Montenegrin poet and author Jevrem Brkovic outside his home in the capital, Podgorica. The attack left his driver, Srdjan Vojicic, dead from gunshot wounds, and Brkovic, 73, with severe head injuries.
The motive for the attack is not known. However, Brkovic told the press that he believes that it was carried out by “murderers and gangsters who recognised themselves” in characters in his recent novel, “A Duklja Lover”, set in the criminal underworld. Montenegro has suffered high levels of crime with a number of unsolved killings of high profile figures in recent years. Among them is Dusko Jovanovic, publisher and editor of the daily “Dan”, who was murdered in May 2004 following articles in his newspaper criticising organised crime (see IFEX alerts of 1 June and 28 May 2004).
Brkovic is known for his opposition to the Serbian government’s role in the conflicts in the Balkans in the early 1990s, and was obliged to leave for Croatia, where he lived for several years until his return to Montenegro in 1999.
A declaration made by the participants of the first regional conference of the Trieste Centre of International PEN on 31 October 2006, supported by Croatian PEN, of which Brkovic is a member, called on the Montenegrin government to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation, bring those responsible to justice, take every measure necessary to prevent similar acts of violence in the future and establish the conditions needed to fully protect freedom of expression.
In a press release posted on Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic’s website, the president referred to a visit he had made to Brkovic in hospital and added that he had met with the director of police to request that all necessary actions be taken to apprehend the assailants. The director is said to have assured the president “of the full commitment and dedication of the police to reveal this criminal act.”
